#2 Prompt for Password

[MacFarland Hale]

I'd prefer to be prompted for my hotmail account password when I run Mail, rather than store the password in the account settings.

In general, it's a security risk to store passwords on any system. With all my other email accounts, I do not enter the passwords into the Account settings in the Preferences dialog. When Mail first checks for new messages, I am then prompted for passwords, one prompt dialog for each account. The passwords are then remembered for the duration of the Mail session.

I am unable to make this approach work with my hotmail account using httpmail. If I leave the password empty in the Account settings, instead of being prompted when Mail checks for new hotmail messages, I get a simple error dialog instead. No prompt to enter my password.

BTW, I know Mail uses the KeyChain, which is more secure than many password storage mechanisms. However, I want to allow others to use my Mac OS X account, without allowing them to access my mail accounts. I assume others have this need as well.

Thanks again for an awesome utility!

Mac Hale

[Daniel Parnell]

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Unfortunatly I don't think Mail lets you do this, and sice the plugin is written to work with Mail in the way it expects this may not be possible to do.

[MacFarland Hale]

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I use Mail.app for 4 other accounts right now - 3 POP (one with SSL) and one .Mac. All allow me to leave the password empty in the Account preferences. Then, when I run Mail, the first time Mail wants to get new messages, it prompts me for each of these 4 passwords (one dialog each). So Mail.app definitely allows you to do this.

On the other hand, if you're saying there's no support for this scenario in the APIs you're using to interact with Mail.app, then that's that. I'm unfamiliar with those APIs, so I can't provide any clues.

Even so, still a cool utility. Thanks.

Mac Hale